Passion is the Way for Dustin Nay

Dustin Nay speaks on website speed at an SLC|SEM event last month in South Jordan. Nay is succeeding in his passions of digital marketing. Photo courtesy Dustin Nay

By Rhett Wilkinson

South Valley - Passion.

In more than one way, it drives Dustin Nay.

Here’s what
he tweeted about website speed:

“People say they got an A on GT Metrix or a 97 on
PageSpeed Insights, and I say, I don't give a rat's behind. What's your load
time? #rant”

He’s tweeted about favoring sleep over passion.

After returning from a typical day’s-long work in
Draper, Nay works in digital marketing nearly into the middle of the night at
his Riverton home.

With such passion, perhaps the Eighty & Eight
founder indeed deserved a spot as an SLC|SEM session speaker alongside
executives at companies like Deseret Book, DOMO and Progrexion.

Passion that is not limited to Twitter, sleep
deprivation or presentations. When speaking with the Draper Journal and
Riverton Journal, the Riverton native, without solicitation, said this:

“A lot of business owners and marketers don’t think
about or realize how fast or slow websites are. If you can make it load really
fast, you will increase sales. It’s a logical following: If you have a fast
website, you will make more money.”

And this:

“The crux of everything for marketing is your
website. As a general rule, websites are not going away.”

And wrote this:

“We'll cut your load time in half or more, make your
site virtually unhackable, and iteratively make your site more productive by
improving conversions and driving more traffic to you.”

No surprise, then, that he said “passion” when
describing what internet marketing means to him.

Nay has worked for several years in site management.
That includes WordPress. He has found a niche as a “WordPress site performance
expert” by “straddling the line” between web development and digital marketing
through the blogging company. Through Eighty & Eight, he does consulting
for businesses who want “faster, more secure, more productive” WordPress
websites.

Nay veered into online marketing largely because he
needed to market himself. He faced the challenge of reaching the “right people”
since, as a new business owner, he didn’t have a built-in audience, he said. He
was further introduced to WordPress while doing video marketing.

That’s another passion. Nay owns an independent film
production company. YEA-NAY Productions focuses on “quality of storytelling
first, technical details second,” according to its LinkedIn profile. Its first
film, a student production, was completed on a $1,200 budget. Three awards came
YEA-NAY’s way in a student festival. After starting the studio, Nay worked over
the next three years at SEO.COM and Oquirrh Mountain Symphony.

And that’s another – wait for it – passion: music.
He is a board member of Utah Philharmonic Orchestra. On his way to earning a
music education degree at the University of Utah, Nay was part of the “Pride (close!)
of Utah,” the school’s marching band. He knows how to play the piano, trombone
and French horn.

“Arts education is part of being a well-rounded
person,” he said. “It’s an avenue of expression. It provides context to and
connects you with the world around you.”

For the second time, Nay used the word when he said
that he is “passion(ate)” about community. Nay loves living in Riverton. He and
his wife moved there to be close to family and found it to be a safe place to
raise children. He loves its business climate. He still sometimes attends city
council meetings after making a pastime of it – as a kid.

Nay described products of passion, perhaps, in his
speaker bio in saying that he is a “wannabe lifehacker” who runs a food blog
with his wife.

And if plethora equals passion, take a look at
another bio on a certain social media platform: